Myanmar Frees 40 Political Prisoners Amid Amnesty for Detainees

Peace activist Yan Naing Tun talks to the media after his release in front of Insein prison in Yangon. Photographer: Soe Than Win/AFP via Getty Images

Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Myanmar freed 40 political prisoners
and granted amnesty to 200 others facing charges following
President Thein Sein’s pledge to increase freedom in the
country, according to a group representing the detainees.

Myanmar’s transition to democracy in 2012 prompted the U.S.
and European Union to ease sanctions, with French oil company
Total SA among new investors in the nation. U.S. President
Barack Obama told Thein Sein in May that building democracy and
ending human rights abuses will bring greater prosperity to the
Southeast Asian country.

“We welcome the amnesty,” said Tun Kyi, a member of a
Myanmar-based group working on behalf of the political
prisoners.

Myanmar may attract as much as $100 billion in foreign
direct investment over the next two decades if it spends enough
to achieve its economic growth potential, McKinsey Global
Institute said in a report in May.

The former military regime’s gross domestic product could
more than quadruple to $200 billion with an 8 percent annual
growth rate, according to McKinsey, almost double the pace from
1990 to 2010. That may help lure $170 billion in capital
inflows, it said, with FDI accounting for $100 billion -- more
than twice as much as it attracted in the previous two decades.

Thein Sein released at least 19 political prisoners, the
Associated Press reported, before his White House visit in May.
Human rights advocates had accused him of dragging his feet on
promises for change and said many pledges haven’t been met,
including a panel to review political prisoner cases.